Trappe desperate to snare some silverware
December 31, 2008
Six months on and the whiff of sulphur can still be detected around the drumlins of Monaghan. But what will happen in the shoot-out in 2009. Monaghan senior football selector Adrian Trappe
looks ahead.
For all the broken dreams that have pockmarked the gaeldom that is Monaghan in recent years, Adrian Trappe still believes the Oriel County has enough ammunition to shoot down its rivals in '09.
He is the first to admit though that the current county think-tank are in the last chance saloon and that championship silverware must be captured within the next ten months.
Last year again disappointed. First Fermanagh and then classy Kerry. It was a conspiracy calculated to explode Monaghan's championship aspirations in 2008.
The Monaghan Harps stalwart doesn't even begin to try and finger a silver lining. The team and its selectors set out to at least win the Ulster SFC but fell short.
"We ended up with no silverware, that's the bottom line," Adrian confesses." There's no getting away from the fact that last year was a massive let-down because of the way we went out of the Ulster championship so early on.
"We went into the championship with big ideas but ended up with just one match and it was a hell of a long eight weeks before we were able to get back on track in the qualifiers."
The dust of dreams being demolished hung over the Oriel County for months after Croke Park was rid of its litter last summer. So near and yet so far was again the story.
In the run-up to the Ulster SFC clash with Fermanagh last May, the sound of silence richocheting against the beams bolstering every gaeldom in Monaghan was positively deafening.
Banty, his selectors and players played their cards as close to their chests as any gunslinger ever did in Dodge City. Sadly the white and blue brigade drew a blank.
In following Antrim out the championship's exit door, Monaghan's bubble was never so close to bursting. Loyalty and character were called for in large doses all-round.
Snapshots in the newspapers of Monaghan's think-tank and their players trooping off the field in Enniskillen contained enough DNA to spawn a story of biblical proportions.
Monaghan strangely went onto the field at Brewster Park with the look of underdogs and after a sorry 70 minutes ended up traipsing off with a hangdog look.
The Oriel camp visage, post-Brewster Park, betrayed their 'we blew it' inner most feelings. Monaghan Football Inc. was left virtually speechless after the 0-10 to 2-8 defeat.
Adrian offers no excuses. It's hands-up time. Ifs and buts aren't part of his lexicon these days.
"Some people may well say that we went into the game against Fermanagh in a complacent frame of mind but that's not true.
"The fact is they were more up for it on the day. Hindsight is a great thing but Fermanagh proved in 2008 by getting to the Ulster final that they are a very good team.
"They pushed Armagh to a replay and, who knows, if their free-takers had been on form we could be talking about us having been beaten by the Ulster champions of 2008.
"When we went out of the championship, things looked very bleak for us and I know the whole county was disillusioned by the result, not just the players and the management team."
The highly-respected Monaghan selector puts moral victories, sympathy votes and pats on the back all in the same out-box. But a major victory?
"We let ourselves down last year, especially against Fermanagh, and the supporters recognise that and, like us, all they want is silverware, nothing more, nothing less.
"We did recover some of our pride though after the Fermanagh disaster. We beat Derry in 2007 and got a lot of credibility and respect and we got a bit more again last July.
"It didn't matter really who we played in the Qualifiers. The only thing that mattered was that we got past the first round - that had to be our sole focus after losing to Fermanagh.
"I heard some people say at the time that we couldn't have got a worse draw but I'm sure Derry weren't a bit pleased either that they were drawn against us."
St. Tiernach's Park would reflect the bearpit that is Ulster football and it became a passionate, heaving arena when Monaghan hosted match favourites Derry.
Making amends for going out of the Ulster SFC at the first time of asking was the name of the game for both teams. Something simply had to give.
"After the Fermanagh game, we badly needed a pick-me-up and the lads gave everyone that by beating Derry in what was a very good performance," Adrian reflects.
"Derry were the national league champions and had a lot going for themselves but we matched them in every department and took more of our chances and deserved to win.
"It was a great scalp to get. We had been so down after going out of the (Ulster) championship and to bounce back and beat Derry was just what we wanted.
"I felt we got the rub of the green in Clones (against Derry) but I suppose you make your own luck and, anyway, it didn't matter how we got back on track as long as we did."
Monaghan's search for redemption post-Fermanagh gained further momentum next time out with victory in Ballybofey over a vaunted Donegal side.
"By the time the Donegal game came around, the buzz was well and truly back in the camp," says Adrian. "They had won the league in 2007 and were fancied to go a long way.
"Not many teams go to Ballybofey and win in the championship so it was a hell of a boost for us to go there and get the better of them.
"We had a bit of luck on our side against Derry but we beat Donegal purely on merit. Derry was a real crunch game but the match against Donegal did wonders for our confidence.
"The lads played probably their best football of the year against Donegal and it definitely helped to erase a lot of the hurt that the county felt about going out of Ulster."
Monaghan's position on the ledger of Gaelic football leaped forward on the back of the renaissance experienced in the Qualifiers.
"The mood of the lads at training after the Donegal game was one of the best I've seen since my time with the senior county team and morale was excellent," says selector Trappe.
The team's subsequent defeat to Kerry at Croke Park delivered a real sense of deja vu to Monaghan folk following the Kingdom's corresponding victory in 2007.
Was there any consolation to be gleaned from the team's heroic display against the defending All-Ireland senior football champions?
"Over the last couple of years in my time, there have been some great performance in Croke Park last August was one of those but there are no prizes for being runner-up.
"The Kerry defeat was unacceptable. We can't accept a brave display in going down to Kerry as something to be happy with because we've gone past that stage.
"Tyrone wouldn't take anything out of a brave defeat to Kerry and we have to have the same mentality if we're going to get the victories we want at the highest level."
And the spectre of facing Derry once again when the sides clash in Celtic Park in the 2009 Ulster SFC?
"Again, it's as tough a draw as you would have wished to avoid but we can't do anything about it except look upon it as an opportunity to achieve what we want to achieve.
"If you're going to win championships, you have to beat the best teams around and Derry are one of the toughest teams in the province but I know we'll give it our best shot."
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